© The School of Truth
Source p. 336, Nov / Dec 2010 - The Path of Truth

The term "using an affirmation" is very well known to those who read the literature which is published in the interests of Truth teachings, but the real scope and purpose of an affirmation is not always understood.

Too often an affirmation is understood to be a sentence or series of sentences designed to be repeated over and over again because this repetition has some magical quality about it which will produce the desired good mentioned, or at least inferred, in the wording of the affirmation. This definition is one that inevitably leads to a lifeless, parrot-like repetition over a greater or lesser period of time; a course that is finally abandoned for lack of results and which, unfortunately, frequently leads the disappointed user of it to abandon Truth teachings altogether.

The primary purpose of an affirmation is to set up a creative vibration by speaking the word of Truth and thus set that vibration to work upon the plane of the senses. Therefore every affirmation should be a statement of the spiritual truth, regardless of its apparent falsity on the material level. It is this necessity to state as truth that which is denied by the senses, that is the great stumbling-block to the average person, bound as he is by the evidence of his senses.

He may be acutely conscious of a lack in his life; a lack that is actually revealed to him by the evidence of his senses, and being unable to solve this problem of lack by material means, he turns to spiritual means or what we call Truth teachings.

Here he is taught to use an affirmation, which is explained simply as a positive prayer which operates the Divine Law in the direction of producing that which he is conscious of lacking, provided the user of it is speaking the words AS Truth. But the trouble is that the evidence of the senses is so insistent that the affirmation is used not AS Truth but as a magical formula, which will eventually produce something which can then be accepted as Truth.

Another very important aspect of using the power of the word is that it is equally capable of bringing from the formless Universe down to the formed particular, either that which we appreciate as good or depreciate as evil, and it is unfortunately true that much more of the latter than of the former is produced. This is not due to a deliberate use of an "affirmation" of evil but to an ignorant use of thought and words which made an affirmation, although not recognised as such.

"I am sick," is just as powerful an affirmation as "I am health," and each produces results on the level of the sense in accordance with its quality.

To affirm the Truth that "I am the spiritual Child of God in whom He is well pleased," will bring at least some of that spiritual perfection to shine through the outer self for its upliftment; whereas to affirm "I am a miserable sinner in whom God is very disappointed," is not only a lie, but one that is powerful to depress and make more of a failure of the outer self than ever.

Affirmations can only be used successfully by one who unquestioningly believes in the truth of the words being used. To repeat a series of words whilst believing something quite different is a sheer waste of time. It is in fact worse than that because it is a heightening of the war between the flesh and the spirit. To use a positive affirmation with the idea that it will, by constant repetition, end in bluffing the user into believing it, is also bad tactics.

The only type of person who can unquestioningly believe in the truth of an affirmation is the one who KNOWS that the wording of it deals with eternal Truth on the spiritual level, and does not pretend to be a statement of truth as it appears to the senses.

The man who lacks supply and KNOWS that he is an eternal spiritual being, heir to all that God is and all that He has, can affirm that he is abundance itself, and have that abundance manifested in the affairs of his outer self. If, however, he is still bound by the belief that he is only a physical being, he will find it impossible to affirm with conviction that he is abundance - the material evidence of his sense will be too strong. It is a case of 'as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.'

The sense man constantly leads us astray with his insistent demand for proof and we shut out our good by giving way to that demand. Maybe we are trying hard to live in the spiritual truth but fail because we fall into the error of looking for results on the material level and making those results the criterion of the truth.

Nowhere has the truth of this question been better put than in the meditation on Mastery by Frances Foulks, the well known Unity writer, wherein she speaks of ceasing to try and attain mastery over the outer circumstances and conditions, and giving the whole attention to the inner spiritual self instead. The effect of this change of attitude is, she says, that the spiritual self takes command and assumes the mastery over these conditions.

The outer self naturally benefits by the mastery assumed by the spiritual self but it is not its own work. This particular piece of writing is a powerful plea for the abandonment of all attempts to 'make a demonstration' and a call for the living of the spiritual affirmative life by means of which the 'demonstration' will naturally occur.